Turkey is now being advertised internationally and domestically as a beacon of “freedom and democracy.” There’s a widespread perception among Turks that the government has cut a deal: in exchange for being a “Muslim role model” to vastly-more-screwed-up Muslim countries, it has been given a free pass by the West to do as it pleases at home. After all, Westerners who once fussed about Turkey’s rights and liberties – and who did so constantly when Turkey was under military rule – are largely silent about what this government has been doing since it came to power. This perception is pushing ordinary Turks, who know full well the government’s faults, toward a nasty anti-Western nationalism.